■ Thailand
US aid held up by Katrina
The country will become the first bordering the Indian Ocean to use tsunami warning buoys after the US gives 24 million baht (US$600,000) to set up the censor system. But delivery of the buoys may be delayed because the factory producing them is located in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.
■ Singapore
`K' found in coffee packets
Three men were arrested after Singapore's biggest ketamine haul was found hidden in coffee packets carried at Changi Airport by an odd-job laborer. The 3.24kg of the synthetic drug were found by police in hundreds of small sachets inside the five large packets, which had an estimated street value of S$166,500 (US$100,000). Narcotics officers staked out the departure hall and transit area after receiving a tip. A 32-year-old Malaysian, who works as a music deejay, is believed to be a money courier. A third accomplice, a 37-year-old car mechanic, was also arrested. If convicted, the men face prison terms of five to 30 years plus caning.
■ Philippines
Child prisoners to be moved
A special task force is being launched to transfer thousands of child offenders out of adult jails and into rehabilitation centers. The social welfare department was also setting up a foster family system for the children. The move follows a CNN report in August that as many as 20,000 Filipino children could be behind bars. President Gloria Arroyo's chief aide Eduardo Ermita said government figures showed there were 3,705 children being held in jail. Offenders below the age of 18 should be turned over to the Social Welfare Department or kept in the custody of their parents. However, a lack of funds has sometimes prevented authorities from immediately attending to all children who were arrested, resulting in their being jailed alongside adult criminals.
■ Singapore
Birth rate still plunging
The country's birth rate plunged to an all-time low last year despite a 300 million Singapore dollar (US$175 million) package of policies introduced in 2004 to induce more births, particularly among working couples. Maternity leave was extended to 12 weeks, a five-day work week was introduced, tax breaks and an extension of cash incentives. But the total fertility rate dropped to 1.24 children for each woman, down from 1.25 in 2003, well below the 2.1 replacement rate. Last year's rate worked out to only 35,100 births, far below the 50,000 needed for population replacement in the city-state of 4.2 million people. The rate in Singapore is now among the lowest in the world.
■ China
One-child policy to stay
China is in no position to relax its Draconian one-child policy as it struggles to keep its population within 1.37 billion by the end of the decade. Continued tough implementation of the policy is needed even though China is now in the "low-birth-rate" club with 1.8 children per couple, down from 5.8 three decades ago, the Xinhua news agency said. "China's low birth rate is unstable," Zhang Weiqing, the head of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, told a conference in east China's Shandong Province. "Many people fail to fully understand that keeping a low birth level is an arduous and long-term task for China," Zhang said. The two-decade-old policy makes it illegal for urban couples to have more than one child but allows rural couples to have a second child if their first is a daughter.
■ United States
Love in drug trouble
A Los Angeles judge on Friday sentenced rock singer Courtney Love to 180 days in a county jail for drug use -- but also praised her efforts to go clean. The widow of late Nirvana rock star Kurt Cobain will be able to serve the time at a live-in chemical dependency program, Superior Court Judge Rand Rubin ruled. Love, 41, has been on a detox treatment since an August 19 hearing when she admitted breaching a parole condition by taking drugs. The former Hole singer has been in regular trouble with the courts in recent months. Love is serving three probation orders, two for illegal drug use.
■ Singapore
Cell bank expanding
A stem cell firm with a subsidiary in the city state is planning to set up cord blood banking facilities in India, the United Kingdom and Australia, its chief executive director said yesterday. "We are actively looking at how best to set up and operate in those markets, since we are already getting clients out of them," The Business Times quoted Cygenics head Steven Fang as saying. The company is known here for its subsidiary Cordlife, its tissue banking arm. It preserves umbilical cords, a rich source of stem cells, for a fee.
■ Nigeria
Rampaging hippo eaten
A rampaging hippopotamus was killed in central Kogi State, Friday and its body was carved up for local consumption. Vice-Chairman of Kakanda district council, Lokoja, said the hippo had killed a local resident and wreaked havoc in the community over the last two months, destroying crops and hampering fishing. The state marine police put together a team of officers and hunters to kill the animal. Residents looked on as butchers carved up the hippo's body on the river banks. Many were rewarded with meat, while the head and other parts were reserved for Lokoja's state governor. Sule said it was tradition to keep "sumptuous parts" for those in authority.
■ Guinea Bissau
Cholera death toll rises
At least 4,400 more people have been diagnosed with cholera in just two weeks in the west African state, and 35 of them have died, the health ministry said. "The situation is way beyond the means we have to combat it," chief medical officer Tome Vaz said as the new figures were released on Friday. The figures took the total since the outbreak began in June to 264 dead and 14,660 cases. The French embassy in the capital Bissau said France was sending extra medical aid by air.
■ Zimbabwe
Farm `idlers' attacked
The country's vice president has threatened to take back farms from black farmers if they do not fully use the land, a newspaper reported yesterday. "Vice President Joyce Mujuru ... said all beneficiaries of land reform found under-utilizing their farms should lose those properties," the Herald said. Agricultural production in the country has rapidly declined since the land reform program to resettle white-owned farms with blacks began. "We want farmers who work the land for maximum production, not incompetents and idlers who just sit and do nothing," Mujuru added. In 2000, the government began its seizure of white-owned commercial farms, but many of the farmers lack the capital or skills needed to run commercial farms.
■ United States
Cops keep job after shooting
Police officers involved in the fatal pellet gun shooting of a Red Sox fan outside Fenway Park in Boston were suspended, demoted or reprimanded but will keep their jobs. The officers won't face criminal charges in the death of 21-year-old Victoria Snelgrove last fall. The department's internal investigation concluded that Superintendent James Claiborne, who was in charge of security, failed to create a proper plan for controlling rioting fans after the Red Sox eliminated the New York Yankees from the playoffs last October. Snelgrove was not involved in the rioting, but was hit when an officer aimed at another reveler who was throwing objects at police.
■ United States
Hunter found guilty
A Laotian immigrant was convicted of shooting to death six hunters, after the jury rejected his claim he was shot at first and that he feared for his life. Chai Soua Vang, a 36-year-old truck driver from St. Paul, Minnesota, faces six life terms after the jury found him guilty of six counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. Vang testified that one of the hunters who confronted him shot first and he fired back in self-defense. He recounted chasing the other hunters, shooting them in the back, because he thought they were going for their guns. He ambushed two others from the hunting party -- including a woman -- who arrived on the scene in an all-terrain vehicle.
■ United States
Peru waits for Fujimori
Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said in the US that former president Alberto Fujimori had left no doubt about his Peruvian citizenship when he applied for a passport to return to his homeland from Japan. Now that the Peruvian consulate in Tokyo has given him a passport, "he cannot hide behind Japanese nationality, he should return to answer to justice," Toledo said. Fujimori has been fighting two extradition requests -- one based on his alleged links to the Colina group, and the other accusing him of making a US$15 million payoff to a top aide with misappropriated state funds.
■ United States
Release of 9/11 report urged
Senior Republicans in Congress have joined Democrats in asking CIA director Porter Goss to declassify and release an agency report criticizing the previous director and others for lapses on terrorism ahead of the Sept. 11 attacks. The requests were sent last week by House of Representatives and Senate Intelligence Committee members. Goss has resisted publicizing the report, in part because it could have a negative effect on agency morale. Goss sent a classified version of the document last month, but distribution has been sharply limited.
■ United States
Bush's nephew arrested
A nephew of US President George W. Bush, John Ellis Bush, 21, the youngest son of Florida Governor Jeb Bush, was arrested in the nightlife district of Austin, Texas, at about 2:30am Friday, on allegations of public drunkenness and resisting arrest. Bush was released after about eight hours in custody after agreeing to appear in court. In a jail booking photo, a small cut was visible on the right side of Bush's chin, and police confirmed he was treated at a local hospital for a cut suffered during the arrest. A written arrest report alleged that Bush pushed back against an officer while being handcuffed. He had apparently approached police on the street to ask about acquaintances who had been arrested early, and officers allegedly observed him to be intoxicated and a threat to himself and others.
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
COMFORT WOMEN CLASH: Japan has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery The Japanese government yesterday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after UN investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims. In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical
CONSOLIDATION: The Indonesian president has used the moment to replace figures from former president Jokowi’s tenure with loyal allies In removing Indonesia’s finance minister and U-turning on protester demands, the leader of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is scrambling to restore public trust while seizing a chance to install loyalists after deadly riots last month, experts say. Demonstrations that were sparked by low wages, unemployment and anger over lawmakers’ lavish perks grew after footage spread of a paramilitary police vehicle running over a delivery motorcycle driver. The ensuing riots, which rights groups say left at least 10 dead and hundreds detained, were the biggest of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s term, and the ex-general is now calling on the public to restore their
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